New York State Republicans voted Friday to disband the party’s chapter for younger members, according to Politico, after a damning report revealed that leaders of Young Republican groups across the country had engaged in a jarringly offensive group chat that glorified Adolf Hitler and sexual violence.
Newsday, a Long Island–based newspaper, was first to report that the state Republican leadership was planning to disband the chapter.
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Tuesday’s report from Politico sparked widespread condemnation, although some high-profile Republicans defended the young people. Several of the texts had come from members of New York State Young Republicans.
The former chair of the group, Peter Giunta, reportedly wrote in the chat at one point, “I love Hitler.”
Giunta had been encouraging others to vote for him to chair the Young Republicans’ national organization, which represents voters aged 18-40.
“Everyone that votes no is going to the gas chamber,” he wrote, per Politico.
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“I’m ready to watch people burn now,” Annie Kaykaty, a member of the Young Republicans’ national committee, who is also from New York, reportedly wrote in response.
A photo obtained by HuffPost shows both Giunta and Kaykaty posing with President Donald Trump backstage at a campaign rally in 2024, illustrating their proximity to the national Republican Party’s operations.
The New York State Republican Party did not return HuffPost’s request for comment. But New York GOP chair Ed Cox said in a statement to Politico, “The Young Republicans was already grossly mismanaged, and vile language of the sort made in the group chat has no place in our party or its subsidiary organizations.”
Politico reported that it reviewed 2,900 pages of chats that had been shared among a dozen Young Republican leaders intent on making a power grab on behalf of hardline Trump supporters. They were sent between January and mid-August.
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The outlet said that variations on the N-word, “f****t” and “retarded” appeared some 250 times combined; Black people were also referred to as monkeys and “the watermelon people.”
Bobby Walker, former vice chair of the New York State Young Republicans, reportedly referred to mass rape as “epic.”
The text chain presents a picture of a culture of rampant racism and sexism among young Republicans.
But not everyone sees it that way, apparently.
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Vice President JD Vance defended the group against the Politico report on Wednesday, saying, “Kids do stupid things, especially young boys. They tell edgy, offensive jokes. That’s what kids do.”
Vance is 41, just several months older than the age range the Young Republican group represents.
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